Forum - View topicREVIEW: ef: A Tale of Memories Blu-Ray
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Cecilthedarkknight_234
 Posts: 3820 Location: Louisville, KY |
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that's why i said i would take the vn over the anime, it's been a few years chagen but eh. The artwork is great for the characters but as animation goes... it's as stiff as otaku's corner filled full of used socks. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18210 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Being "understated" ceases being a viable excuse when you have scenes that last four minutes or more on a still frame while the dialogue continues on (IIRC, this happens twice) or you have scenes that are depicted from such a distance that small movements - or the lack thereof - can't be seen (which happens on many occasions). Perhaps I'm being a little cynical, but I found this series to be more obvious than most when it comes to dodging animating things, and few of the dodges were easily justifiable on any grounds other than being style points. Want to see a series which occasionally uses minimalist animation but justifies it so well that one has to concentrate to notice that something isn't animated? Check out the Rei/Asuka elevator scene and the Shinji/Kaworu climactic scenes from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Each of those uses a lack of animation on the screen as a tension-generating technique. ef doesn't do that.
Interesting. . . there's definitely no indication of it in the first series' content, though. I will keep an eye out for that in the second series. |
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Big Hed
 Posts: 1607 Location: Melbourne, Australia |
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I don't know about the dub, but it's explicitly stated in sub. Renji and Chihiro's story spoiler[plays out in Australia (South Australia, I think, being the likeliest inspiration for the setting).] Of course now that I say it, I can't find the scene I had in mind that demonstrates it. I really hope my memory (heh) isn't playing an incredibly convincing trick on me. Last edited by Big Hed on Wed Mar 28, 2012 2:07 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18210 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Where? |
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Big Hed
Posts: 1607 Location: Melbourne, Australia |
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My apologies. I had a clear image of a scene that occurred during the first two or three episodes which made mention of the fact, but I've skimmed through half the show now and it isn't turning up. It seems something that I remembered from melodies got tossed in the mixer. |
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ShinnFlowen
 Posts: 141 |
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I think your getting you're idea of them stating that it's in two separate countries by confusing what they say about the design of the city. I think the only case of they remotely even talked about the actual cities was with Miyako and Hiro. It is sort of silly how they don't tell you why there's two CITIES that look remarkably similar.
If you watched Ef- a tale of melodies it helps make sense of the actual setting as it is both a separate prequel and sequel. I think the review was pretty good, but I really wish ANN would provide more insight on the actual "english voice acting" because the characters can be great, the animation fluid, and the story is well fleshed out however you than encounter characters with spotty voices or voices that don't match them. If I wanted Japanese dub I would import, but I prefer english so I really want to know more about the PROS/CONS of the english dub. Sadly, only two sentences was written without stating the flaws leading to his rating of a "B". |
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mewpudding101
Industry Insider
 Posts: 2206 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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I agree. A C- is ridiculous. Ef is a work of art, and does not need extreme movement to be beautiful. However, I love ef, but Melodies is superb by comparison. AND YUUKO IS NOT A BRUNETTE! She has black, iridescent hair. Also, Elisa got her start in ef, so I guess you should say she did TWKOK later. Apparently, the director didn't even read the original script for the game before making the anime. Which is why Kyousuke and Kei were utterly ignored. I really would have liked to see more of the original story. They took out a VERY important point in Melodies too... I will comment with a spoiler text next time about what that was. However, a good review, although it focused far too much on Chihir (and I hate Chihiro, probably mainly because her voice pisses me off). |
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kakitamike
 Posts: 183 Location: Akron, OH |
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I have to watch this now.
As it's apparently some of the best looking sub par animation to date. |
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omoikane
Posts: 494 |
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i like how the c- is a great troll for a show that is actually visually distinctive and one of its best selling points. even among other post SHINBOxSHAFT works, ef is way out there in terms of direction and color choice and use and what not.
The problem I see as reflected in the review is more regards to how gimmicky it is at times. I think those of you who think animation has to be animated is either blind or just talking nonsense, since ef is clearly animated. There's actually plenty of animation. Just nothing animated in a way where it's eye-popping flashy. And it's probably a conscious choice in ef, too, because the way it uses striking changing cuts. If you have two pictures to show and you don't want to show the transition, of course you wouldn't animate the motion that goes between the two pictures. There are also a lot of cuts where only one portion of something gets animated because they want to highlight that one thing. For example, spoiler[chihiro's arm is the metaphorical "13 hours" in the sheep-on-a-chain 11-year clock, so you see her move her hand or arm because her stretch reflects what is changing in her life in terms of her memories, etc]. I think some people would want to distinguish that sort of lack-of-animation versus the garden variety cabbage kind. So I think it's better to say "gimmicky" rather than "lack of animation" because there's actually plenty of animation. I mean, I am in the middle of watching the series and there's about as much animation as most other late night, low-budget shows. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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You mean "not very much"? |
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Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
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Oh my god, people are still bitching about the C- minus grade for the animation?
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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I just bought the memories and melodies BD but haven't opened them yet. Is there more information about this? Is Sentai offering exchanges? |
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Chagen46
Posts: 4377 |
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Dude, it's just one black bar for a tiny second. I wouldn't exchange a BD just for that |
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irriadin
 Posts: 22 |
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I was very surprised to see the score for animation, since I was always under the impression that ef had stunning animation. In the AMV community, ef is a very popular source material. After looking up the actual source for some of the most (over)used scenes, I found out that they're actually from the visual novel game opening and that Makoto Shinkai directed it. Go figure.
Here's the OP if anyone's interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGnJdvt0dcQ&t=00m49s |
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Mikeski
Posts: 608 Location: Minneapolis, MN |
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...on the one hand, anyone who didn't see this coming needs to watch more moe shows. ...on the other, this does blatantly spoil one of the more important scenes in the show. Does it need to be in the review? |
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